Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Microsoft Windows

Would like to join...

Hi, I would like to join this project. I just created and account, but you can get an idea of my contributions by looking at the edits I did under my I.P. address (24.18.27.44) primarily on the "Development of Windows Vista" page. Thank you A. S. Castanza 02:44, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

Add your username to the participants list Happy editing. — master son^{T - C} 03:10, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Also please put new threads at the bottom of the talk page. — master son^{T - C} 03:10, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

May I join?

The directions said to inquire about joining this project here. I'm a major Windows fan, so I'd be happy to join. Jrdaigle1000 18:34, 28 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Welcome aboard, just add your name to the list, choose your favorite article and start working. --soum ^talk 19:02, 28 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Extend to Microsoft itself?

Hrm, I was thinking maybe just WikiProject Microsoft? It would have quite a bit broader scope then. Another idea is to create a Microsoft WikiProject and then make it a parent of this one... just brainstorming here!! :) RN 10:20, 5 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I also think we should broaden the scope. --soum ^talk 19:04, 28 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

User:Deogene/Windows XP Development

~~Hello, can you help me expand this section of development for Windows XP. -Emir214 05:02, 24 October 2006 (UTC)~~[reply]

Never mind, its done. Check it out on Development of Windows XP. - Emir214 08:54, 26 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Project directory

Hello. The WikiProject Council has recently updated the Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory. This new directory includes a variety of categories and subcategories which will, with luck, potentially draw new members to the projects who are interested in those specific subjects. Please review the directory and make any changes to the entries for your project that you see fit. There is also a directory of portals, at User:B2T2/Portal, listing all the existing portals. Feel free to add any of them to the portals or comments section of your entries in the directory. The three columns regarding assessment, peer review, and collaboration are included in the directory for both the use of the projects themselves and for that of others. Having such departments will allow a project to more quickly and easily identify its most important articles and its articles in greatest need of improvement. If you have not already done so, please consider whether your project would benefit from having departments which deal in these matters. It is my hope that all the changes to the directory can be finished by the first of next month. Please feel free to make any changes you see fit to the entries for your project before then. If you should have any questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you. B2T2 00:05, 26 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Common Sidebar for Windows articles

I started work on a template which could be used in a bunch of windows-related articles. Please take a look at it. I'm interested in any suggestions and if you think it would be a good idea to include this as a right-side sidebar. --Dgies 07:25, 5 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hey, thanks for taking the time to do this... it looks pretty sharp. I have three specific comments at the moment:

I don't think we're going to be able to use the copyrighted logo image. This is a really tricky area for Windows articles and templates, because, while the articles will generally describe an aspect of Windows, they don't describe the Windows product as a whole. The non-Free nature of a copyrighted logo should also encourage us to minimise their use through the encyclopedia. We owe it to the project to keep our nose as clean as possible. :-) Template:Windows-stub has a Free graphic we can use as a stand-in.

As I understand it, fair use allows using the image in articles on the subject in question. Since this template would only be included on articles on Windows, that seems to qualify. The official logo is so ubiquitous that using anything else in the main article name space would just confuse readers. Dgies

Listing other operating systems doesn't really have a place in a series article on Windows. The space could be employed in other ways; perhaps to bring in more component articles, or other issues of large-scale interest such as product activation, criticism articles, and timelines.

True. A good series box has several sub-sections, and I wasn't quite sure what to include or how to break it up. Dgies

This is more a question, really... where do you envision the template being placed in an article that already has an Infobox?

-/- Warren 08:11, 5 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The infobox describes the particular details of one version of Windows. There's no good interface to getting to the most important windows-related articles. The history of windows template is a good start, but there should be a convenient way to see a bunch of related articles all in one place. The use of categories is imperfect because the categories are listed at the bottom and don't show the other articles until you go to the category page.
My inspiration was boxes like the one on Hinduism or indeed, a bunch of political and religous movements. It has all the major related articles, arranged by subject, all in one place. --Dgies 08:47, 5 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Those are indeed excellent series boxes. The thing is, we have literally hundreds of Windows articles spread across a number of categories and levels of technical detail. What do you think about having separate series boxes for every major subject matter? For example, there could be a Windows XP series box, a "Windows user interface" series box, etc.... -/- Warren 08:56, 5 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Good job on the template, but it might make the article look a bit too crowded... :-( — Alex ^(T|C|E) 08:36, 5 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not too sure about this. The Windows version articles (Windows Vista, Windows XP, etc) have their own infobox about the product itself. Adding another infobox, IMHO, would ruin the layout on many of the main articles. Perhaps redesign it so it can be a navigation toolbox at the end of the article and it can replace the Windows Versions template already there. Harryboyles 10:05, 5 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Not a sidebar, but a footnote template can be created for Windows components (as the current {{Microsoft}} template is becoming too crowded. Having different and more topical navboxes will help reduce clutter.

To solve the problemt of having the navigational aids too fragmented, I have started working on {{Template:MSNav}}. Its under development currently. Please engage in the discussion. --soum (0_o) 12:46, 6 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia Day Awards

Hello, all. It was initially my hope to try to have this done as part of Esperanza's proposal for an appreciation week to end on Wikipedia Day, January 15. However, several people have once again proposed the entirety of Esperanza for deletion, so that might not work. It was the intention of the Appreciation Week proposal to set aside a given time when the various individuals who have made significant, valuable contributions to the encyclopedia would be recognized and honored. I believe that, with some effort, this could still be done. My proposal is to, with luck, try to organize the various WikiProjects and other entities of wikipedia to take part in a larger celebrartion of its contributors to take place in January, probably beginning January 15, 2007. I have created yet another new subpage for myself (a weakness of mine, I'm afraid) at User talk:Badbilltucker/Appreciation Week where I would greatly appreciate any indications from the members of this project as to whether and how they might be willing and/or able to assist in recognizing the contributions of our editors. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 17:48, 30 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed userbox

Hey I saw the userbox image wasnt working to I fixed it :D

-- Kai81123 ► 13:00, 20 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

actually, the userbox should not use copyrighted logo... --Jacklau96 01:43, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

MDAC importance

Out of interest, why is MDAC of mid-importance? Given that it's the framework for all data access (even if it may have been rebadged to WDAC), I'd say that it's of high importance to the Windows world! Not much software that needs to talk to database(s) would work without this component framework. - Ta bu shi da yu 13:36, 31 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

We're writing an encyclopedia for everybody. Sure, MDAC is of high importance to native code developers, but it's of no relevance to .NET developers, or the user community at large. As a reference, I'm giving top importance to articles about operating system versions and other "main" articles about the subject as a whole, high importance to major components that more than 25% of all Windows users are likely to have heard about, mid importance to other components that more than 1% would have heard of, and low importance to just about everything else. 1% is approximately five million people -- a huge number in absolute terms, but tiny in the scope of the entirety of the subject of Windows. -/- Warren 17:43, 3 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Boilerplate fair use rationale for screenshots

As a result of Betacommandbot's recent rampage about fair use rationales, discussion is up for whether boilerplate rationales for cover art is acceptable. Maybe its time we start our discussion on whether there should be templated fair use rationales for software screenshots, as it tends to be more or less same for most shots. --soum (0_o) 12:48, 6 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting idea. I'm completely in favour of adopting the same approach as what's used for album covers, since our fair-use needs aren't really fundamentally different from theirs, but they are a much larger project than us, so... let them bang out the details and we'll ride on their coat-tails. :) User:Themodernizer started using that nice {{non-free fair use rationale}} template a few months ago but maybe we could have a similar template that matches up nicely with {{non-free software screenshot}} that's more finely tuned to our needs.

I added the image_has_rationale parameter to {{non-free software screenshot}} so that we could track our progress with having a rationale on every Windows-related image. If we do nothing else, I think we should make sure that all our images have a rationale pretty soon. -/- Warren 17:32, 6 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Formatting of interfaces

What is the preferred formatting to apply to interfaces? Is it IDispatch or IDispatch or something else? What about their methods? Shinobu 12:59, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Is that distinction (to single out interfaces) even necessary when using this in prose? The context makes it clear. Any method name or interface or whatever can be used with <code>...</code> or even simply italicized, as long as it is consistent throughout the article.

If any code snippet is being provided, it can be used with <source>...</source> tags that provides syntax highlighting (I am not finding the mediawiki page describing it). --soum ^talk 13:20, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Need comments

Of this template. Thanks. --soum ^talk 17:53, 16 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Might not be a good idea to be an infobox-like template. Suggest that it use {{Navbox generic}}. (→vish win60 - is User:O in 1 day (possibly)) 18:43, 16 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Bottom of the article is already crowded. Thats why I opted for a sidebar. --soum ^talk 18:45, 16 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It's still not a good idea to do a sidebar. The bottom crowding can be alleviated by doing |state=autocollapse so that two or more navigation templates will be collapsed. (→vish win60 - is User:O in 1 day (possibly)) 18:47, 16 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Featured Article Review

I've nominated Architecture of Windows NT for a Featured Article review, see Wikipedia:Featured article review/Architecture of Windows NT. SP-KP 11:25, 19 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Windows Library Files

We need an expert to take a look at the Windows Library Files page. I think that it could be merged with the Dynamic-link Library page as a sub-section. -Adam H 15:56, 29 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Expanding the article would be a much better idea. I think finding a person with knowledge about Windows DLLs won't be hard, the main problem is finding references. -- Prince Kassad 13:36, 28 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Proposed deletions (WP:PROD)

5 September - expires 10 September
- Microsoft Installer Patch Files (PROD by User:84.170.249.86; "Microsoft Installer Patch Files or MSP Files are files that are used in conjunction with MSIExec.exe and oHotfix.exe to update a program that employs a Microsoft Installer for installation.") --User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 14:11, 9 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

MS Paint

I've got a good picture for the MS Paint article. Link in the Ms Paint Discussion board under 'Wikipaint'.Racooon 13:07, 11 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Windows XP FAR

Windows XP has been nominated for a featured article review. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to featured quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, articles are moved onto the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article from featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Reviewers' concerns are here. OSX (talk • contributions) 10:24, 30 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

concerns re. Architecture of Windows NT

I have just added my name to the project member list but I have been editing Windows internals-related articles for as long as I've been here... which is not that long on the WP scale. I have grave concerns about the Architecture of Windows NT article. Despite its former FA status it has many problems. I've put what amounts to an RFD on the talk page there, but so far there have been no replies. Please comment there! Thanks... Jeh (talk) 03:34, 10 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Why is the Windows logo...

...symbolized using the logo for Klickety? Just asking. Is the Windows Logo under strict proprietary license or something? ZtObOr 02:38, 21 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Added:Windows-software-stub

I thought you'd like to know that as a member of WP:Stub Sorting I have added Windows-software-stub to the Stub Sorting List and your Templates section. Kathleen.wright5 03:44, 5 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Stub icon update

I changed the icon over to one that I made. If it's not satisfactory then feel free to revert, or create a new one. 142.177.29.245 (talk) 17:54, 20 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]